Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. New York: UBS, 2003.
And I have this day declared it to you may be rendered “So now I have told what the LORD’s word to you is.”
The voice of the LORD: See verses 6, 13.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Since we left off burning incense … to her: This is best understood as a reference to the reforms set in motion by King Josiah, who attempted to do away with all idolatry in Judah and Jerusalem. However, following his death in the battle of Megiddo (604 B.C.), things doubtless began to turn for the worse and the people must have become disillusioned.
We have lacked everything can be expressed as “we have had nothing that we needed.”
Consumed, as elsewhere in this chapter, means to be killed. See verse 12.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Your multitude stumbled and fell: The Hebrew of this line is literally “[The] one stumbling increased; also he [or, one] fell to his friend.” The problem is complicated, and several different solutions have been suggested, but Hebrew Old Testament Text Project suggests rendering the first part as “he stumbled much.” If “he” is taken collectively, then we may follow Good News Translation “Your soldiers have stumbled.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch takes “he” to be God and translates “The Lord made Pharaoh’s soldiers stumble.” All things considered, translators should probably render this line as either “Many [or, Your soldiers] have stumbled and fallen” or “He [or, The LORD] made many stumble and fall.”
Arise is a call to get started: “Come on!” or “Hurry!” (Good News Translation).
Let us go back to our own people and to the land of our birth: To the land of our birth means “to our native land,” the land where we were born. It is in parallel with our own people. Translators can render this with a sentence such as “Let’s go back to our native countries, where our own people are.”
Because of the sword of the oppressor: The sense is “because the enemy will kill us [if we don’t]” or “Let’s get away from the sword of the enemy” (New Living Translation). Compare 25.38.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
In this context be ashamed of is best understood as “be disillusioned with” (Good News Translation), “be disappointed by” (Bible en français courant), or “be let down by” (Revised English Bible).
Chemosh is the Moabite god (see verse 7).
The house of Israel; that is, “the Israelites.” See 2.26.
Bethel: A god of this name is known to have been worshiped in Syria and Babylonia; it is also one of the names used of God among the Jews who later settled in Elephantine, Egypt. Since the name refers to a god, and not to the better known place, Good News Translation renders Bethel, their confidence as “Bethel, a god in whom they trusted.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
As with verse 1 of the previous chapter, the beginning here can be “Here is what the LORD says about the land [or, the people] of Ammon.”
Ammonites: For Ammon see 9.25-26.
Thus says the LORD: See 2.2.
Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir?: Sons and heir refer to the same people. However, most translations do not combine the two terms; for example, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “It is as though Israel has no sons and rightful heirs!” Note that this model emphasizes the point with a statement instead of rhetorical questions. This will also be more natural in some other languages. The heir would be the person to inherit the land, but instead, the Ammonite god Milcom has taken over part of the Israelites’ land. In addition to a rendering like that of Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, translators can say “Aren’t there any people of Israel left to possess their land?”
Milcom was the Ammonite god. If the Hebrew text is read with different vowels, the meaning may be “their king.” However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project proposes the form of the text represented by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Of course, it was not Milcom who occupied the land, but the people who worshiped him, as Good News Translation makes clear. Further, Good News Translation uses the more familiar name “Molech.”
The territory of the tribe of Gad, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, was east of the Jordan River and north of the Dead Sea. In 734 B.C. the Assyrian king Tiglath Pileser conquered this territory and carried its people away into exile. The Ammonites then moved into the territory that the Israelites had previously occupied. In this verse translators may have to render dispossessed Gad as “taken the land of the tribe of Gad.”
Bible en français courant has reordered the verse in a way that makes it more readable:
• Why has the god Milcom taken over the territory of Gad? Why do the Ammonites occupy the Israelite towns? Doesn’t Israel have any sons to be its heirs?
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
A haunt of jackals: See “a lair of jackals” at 9.11. See also 14.6.
Waste is the same word rendered “desolation” by Revised Standard Version in 4.27. See there. Here Good News Translation uses “desert.”
Dwell is the equivalent of sojourn. New Jerusalem Bible renders the last two lines “No one will live there any more, no human being settle there again.” Good News Translation has “No one will ever live there again.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch interprets the two verbs with a slight difference of meaning: “No one will live there, no one will stop there.” See verse 18 for a discussion of these same expressions.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Come against usually has the sense of “attack.” See verse 3.
From every quarter is a difficult construction, but Hebrew Old Testament Text Project proposes the meaning “from every part.” We could then translate the first line as “Attack it from every side” (Good News Translation).
Granaries are “the places where its grain is stored” (Good News Translation). Her in the construction pile her up like heaps of grain is best taken collectively as the “loot” (Good News Translation) taken from the city. In the other two places where her occurs in this verse, we may substitute “the nation.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
The image of break in pieces can be retained, but in these verses wherever it is people being dealt with, Good News Translation shifts to “kill,” “slay,” “slaughter,” or “crush.”
The horse and his rider: This is to be understood in a collective sense (Good News Translation “horses and riders”), as are the other objects and persons mentioned in these verses. What is important in the translation of this short passage is to render it in a way that will convey a dramatic and forceful impact to the reader.
For chariot see 4.13.
As elsewhere, if shepherds and flocks are not known, translators can use general terms such as “herdsmen” and “herds of domestic animals [or, their herds].”
The team of the farmer is either the horses or oxen he uses for plowing. Oxen are more likely, but translators can also use a general term such as “animals that pull the plow.”
Since governors and commanders are titles that are difficult to define precisely, it is best to translate them by terms that are more general, representing high positions of civil authority, such as in Good News Translation “rulers and high officials.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .